How to put a password on a wireless network?

I'm tired of people using my wireless internet. I'm the only one in my neighborhood who has wireless internet, so some people just use my connection instead of getting their own, and when people use my internet too much, it makes it lag. I just checked and 3 people are currently using it...

How do I put a password on it, so they can't use it.How to put a password on a wireless network?
If you don't want people to use your network, stop leaving the metaphorical door open and:



a) Set a WPA2 password. WEP and WPA are fine if your router doesn't support anything better. WEP should be your last choice though since it's kind of a joke.



b) Use a MAC address whitelist, adding only the MAC addresses of your own devices.



c) Give all your own devices static internal IPs.



d) Use an IP whitelist, adding only the IP addresses of your own devices



e) Use a hostname whitelist if possible/desired, adding only the hostnames of your own devices.



f) Disable SSID broadcast. This doesn't actually *add* any security measures, but if someone is just walking down the street, scanning for WiFI networks every thirty seconds, he won't bother trying to connect to yours since he probably doesn't even realise it exists. Criminals are lazy in that sense, so you might as well exploit it.



You can do all of this in the HTTP interface to your router firmware, which you can access by typing the IP address of your router into a web browser and hitting the %26lt;enter%26gt; key.



You must, of course, assign static IPs to your devices via the devices themselves. For example, to assign a static IP to a computer, you would have to do so via the operating system.



While it may sound obvious to you, I mean this will all due respect: do step (c) BEFORE step (d) so you don't accidentally end up banning all your own devices. People actually make that mistake sometimes, believe it or not.How to put a password on a wireless network?
You did not mention the exact brand of wireless access point you have. You will need the manual (an on line one is almost always available from the maker's web site if nothing else.)



Here is the general outline:



1. Go to each pc, one at a time, that you wish to permit wireless access. Open command prompt (start, all programs, accessories, command prompt) and at the %26gt; prompt type in ';ipconfig /all'; without quotes. You will see a lot of information. Go carefully to the wireless interface's information. You will see, among a lot of other info, a physical address, which is a 12 character address showing the address in pairs of characters with pairs separated by a - between pairs. Record this address and the pc to which it pertains. This is also called the MAC address.



2. Log onto your wireless access point. Go to the SSID settings and change it to something that is not recognizeable by the neighborhood (e.g. do not use your address, name, etc). Record the new SSID setting.



3. Go to wireless security section. Select encryption and select WPA with preshare key or WPA2 with preshare key. Record what you selected. Enter a preshare key (which is a password). The preshare key should be a mix of upper and lower characters and numbers that is not recognizeable as a word or identifier to you. Record this.



4. Go to MAC address validation and enable MAC address validation. Enter all the MAC addresses of all pcs you wish to permit access in the MAC address validation table which is usually accessed from the MAC address section.



5. Save your router settings.



6. Go to each pc, one at a time. Open wireless configuration and search for wireless networks. Find yours by its new SSID name. Configure for the encryption you defined and enter preshare key and all will work. If you have a problem carefully review what you did and debug it.